Falcon Heavy lived as much as its name Friday evening because it launched the heaviest geostationary satellite ever.
The 9,200 kg (20,282 lbs) Echostar XXIV (Jupiter 3) satellite was launched at 11:04 p.m. ET (03:04 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/7fep4mFSOi
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 29, 2023
The satellite was launched to geostationary transfer orbit, and from there, it can use its onboard thrusters to proceed its journey to geostationary orbit. The satellite will give you the chance to handle 500+ gigabytes of bandwidth capability and supply hastens to 100 megabytes per second. The satellite’s final orbit will probably be at 95 degrees west latitude and 22,300 miles above the equator over the Americas.
Originally meant to launch on Wednesday, July twenty sixth, the countdown was aborted just over a minute before launch because of a stuck valve and prevented pressurization of a component. SpaceX then took a day, replaced the valve, and launched successfully.
Following launch, the 2 side boosters separated from the rocket two and a half minutes into the flight, the stages then performed a lift back burn to slow their momentum and speed up back to the landing zones. The 2 side boosters performed a single engine entry burn as a way to save performance.
Falcon Heavy’s side boosters have landed on LZ-1 and LZ-2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station pic.twitter.com/OItmoqvgrr
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 29, 2023
While the side boosters performed their boost back burns, the middle core and 2nd stage separated, signaling the top of the middle core because it needed maximum performance and was expended, eventually making an uncontrolled splashdown within the Atlantic Ocean.
Because the side boosters continued their strategy to landing zones 1 and a couple of, they reignited three engines to decelerate just before touchdown, marking the 211th and 212th recovery of an orbital class rocket. The side boosters touched down roughly 7 minutes and 51 seconds after lift-off, tying or simply barely breaking the record for fastest launch to landing. The Arabsat-6A mission was the previous record holder.
These side boosters will probably be refurbished and used for a future Falcon Heavy mission. which there may very well be two more this 12 months, the Psyche mission for NASA and the U.S.-52 mission for the U.S. Space Force.
Up next for SpaceX will probably be Galaxy 37 communications satellite, currently scheduled to launch no sooner than just after midnight local time on August third.